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Lentil Soup

A hearty soup of lentils, potatoes, onion, celery, tomatoes, butter, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the onion roughly and fry it in the butter until it begins to brown.

  2. Pick and wash the lentils, then place them in a pot with 8 cups of water or vegetable stock, adding the fried onion.

  3. Peel, wash, and cut the potatoes, and prepare the celery by cutting it into small pieces; add them to the lentils.

Cook and finish

  1. When the lentils and potatoes are nearly soft, add the tomatoes.

  2. Once all ingredients are tender, rub the mixture through a sieve.

  3. Return the soup to the saucepan, season with pepper and salt, and add more water if the soup is too thick.

  4. Serve with slices of toast.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Potato + tomatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the main body and thickness of the soup as they soften and break down.
Potatoes
Add starch that helps thicken the soup and give it a smooth, creamy texture.
Onion
Builds savoury sweetness and depth of flavour when fried until it browns.
Butter
Carries the onion's flavour and helps it brown richly before the liquid goes in.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and a fresh, bright flavour that balances the earthy lentils.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve once tender. Lentils and potatoes must be fully soft before sieving; undercooked pieces will not pass through and leave a grainy texture.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, onion, celery, tomato, butter, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits better
  3. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, onion, celery, tomato, butter, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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